Fugitive
by PotterPhantomKitten
Summary: AU Orphaned by a fire, Danny is forced to live on the streets during the day, and roam as the feared and violent Phantom at night. When a young girl moves to Amity Park, can she ease his lonliness? And what is his mission? DS Alternating POV
1. The Curse

A/N: I know that I need to update my other phics, but this idea has been nagging at my brain for so long I had to start it! Just as a note, the chapters will alternate between Danny and Sam's points of view (like one chapter will be in Danny's POV, the next one Sam's, etc.) This is my first time doing a phic in first person. Anyway, enjoy!

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**Danny's POV **

"Hey! Get back here you little thief!"

With those words ringing in my ears, I quickly fled into an alley, clutching a small apple in my hand. I had thought for sure I'd be able to quietly sneak up to the food cart, grab some food and run before anyone noticed me. But no – the guy _had_ to notice me. Just my luck.

"Whoever you are, when I find you, you'll wish that you had never been born!"

The cart vendor peered down the alley, his beady eyes attempting to search me out. But for once, luck was on my side. After a minute, the man turned around and left, leaving me free to emerge from behind a dumpster, my jet-black hair tainted with dirt and grime.

"That was close," I muttered, finally bringing out the apple I had managed to steal. I desperately wanted to eat it right away, since it was the only food I had managed to get for three days now. I knew I'd have to save some of it though, just in case worse came to worse. With my luck, it most likely would.

"Why?"

That was the one question I asked myself as I nibbled hungrily on the fruit. That one word summed up my life these days. "Why has my life gone wrong? Why am I forced to scrape out this existence as a fugitive?"

A fugitive. That's what I am in this town. For a full year now, I had been struggling to get by, gathering as many scraps of food as I could. But to me, I am Danny. Danny Fenton. At least, I used to be just Danny, but now I have a different name as well. And it is this name that the people fear to speak.

I groaned with a mix of anger and loneliness. I didn't like living this way, but I had no choice. I had to do something to survive. If stealing food during the day was the only way I could accomplish this, then so be it. If I had to live like this until I figured out a solution for my mission, so be it.

"Why?" I asked myself again. "Why is it I am forced to live in a curse when nightfall comes?"

Nightfall…

I jolted up, frantically looking around both sides of the alley. No one was around, so I cautiously crept out, gazing at the horizon. My heart seemed to stop cold as the fading light caught my panicked, ice blue eyes.

"Sunset!" I panicked. I didn't have a watch, but it had to be at least 6:30! I ran through the city, taking many alleyways that no one ever went through but I. I was desperate to get to a place far away from the prying eyes of the normal citizens of Amity Park. Desperate to get home.

Or at least, what used to be my home.

Luckily, few were out to see me running through the streets, but I knew why: Lockdown. Every night, the town was put under lockdown, and shields were put up. We all dreaded nightfall, but for different reasons. To them: it was due to fear and hatred of the threat. Me? I had a different reason: I _was_ the threat.

At last, I reached the remains of what had once been my home. The place where I had once lived, back in a time when I was actually happy. Where I used to live with my parents and older sister, Jazz, where I used to chuckle at my parents blabbering on about ghosts.

Now, however, it was just a smoldered old building, much of the framework charred. Every bit of the house was either disintegrated or burnt to a crisp.

And my parents and sister were gone. Dead.

And at one point, I had been too.

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_Flashback _

"Danny! Danny, where are you?" Jazz coughed through the smoke and flames. "Can you hear me?"

"I'm here Jazz!" I managed to call out. The smoke in the air was so thick, it was hard for me to breathe. "Where are you? And where are Mom and Dad?"

"We're over here, sweetie!" Mom called. "We're trying to find an escape route, but the smoke…it's so thick that we can't see anything!"

"I can't either!" I called out, feeling somewhat faint. The flames seemed to be right next to me as I tried to navigate to find my way to my family.

Finally I saw them, trapped behind what seemed like a wall of flames. Jazz searched desperately for an exit, while my mom was bent over, attempting to help Dad, who was trapped under fallen beams. I felt panic and dread rise from within me. I had to get to them! I _had_ to!

Suddenly, a rumbling sound emitted from the ceiling, right above where my parents and Jazz were. "GET OUT OF THERE!" I screamed, but it was too late. The burning ceiling collapsed on top of them. I could see their skin whiten and their eyes glaze over, and I realized, with a terrible anger and despair clawing at my heart, that they were dead.

With a sinking feeling, I saw their ghostly spirits rise from their bodies. All three of them seemed to come to a conclusion at once: they were dead, but I was still alive.

"Run Danny!" Dad yelled. "Save yourself!"

"Don't worry about us!" Mom cried out. "Just get out of here!"

"Run before the flames get you!" Jazz added. "Run!"

Before I could do anything, a falling beam scraped the edge of one of my parent's inventions: the Fenton Ghost Vacuum. The beam had flicked the switch, and I watched in open-mouthed horror as the spirits of my family were sucked into the vacuum, trapped.

Just as I was about to try to find a way to get over there and release my family, I heard the ceiling creak once more. I stared, numb with terror as a flaming beam fell on top of the vacuum, causing it to explode into millions of fragments.

"NO!" I screamed in horror, for as the vacuum exploded, I had seen bits of ectoplasm fly among the wreckage. I knew at once that it meant my family was destroyed. Forever.

I collapsed onto the ground, not daring to try to stop the tears falling from my eyes. I could feel the dense smoke suffocating my lungs; the burning fire licking my body. But I didn't care. All I could do was lie there and think "They're gone. They're all gone."

I don't remember if it was the smoke or the fire that killed me. I was in too much grief to really tell. Only when the physical pain left me did I realize that I was dead. A ghost.

It was then that I heard a sound. It was faint, but still audible to me: laughter. Cold, cruel, maniacal laughter. "Who's there?" I asked, my voice shaking. "What do you want?" I didn't hear the laughter again, but I knew that was what I had heard. "This was no accident," I whispered angrily. "This was arson."

Gazing around, I saw that my house wasn't the only one that had fallen victim to the fire. Burning houses surrounded me on all sides; it seemed as if the entire town was burning. Everywhere I turned, there was smoke and flame.

I buried my head in my hands, lost in despair. My family was gone, and I was a ghost. A _ghost!_ "What am I going to do?" I moaned.

At once, something began to come back to me. I remembered a friend of Dad's I had once met: Vlad Masters. He was a scientist. The best in the city, in fact. "I have to find him," I said to myself. "If he can't help me, no one can."

_End Flashback _

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I shook my head, unable to forget that fateful night. The night my life had, quite literately, ended. I had eventually found Vlad, who did his best to help me. Unfortunately, his invention was missing an important piece, so it malfunctioned. It managed to restore me back to life – at least in daylight. But at night…

I was jarred out of my thoughts as the last rays of sunlight faded, and a terrible pain surged through my body. I kneeled down on the ground, knowing that I was starting to go through the same terrifying process that I had been going through for a year now. My flesh turned pale as death, and my hands had turned ice-cold. My fingers lengthened, giving my hands an almost skeletal appearance.

My jet-black hair slowly began to turn snowy white, and as I painfully gazed into a puddle of water, my ice blue eyes morphed into a dangerous, neon green. My clothes too, changed from a red-and-white T-shirt and jeans to a suit as black as night, with blood-red gloves, collar, and boots. I had become the one being the citizens of Amity Park feared most – Phantom.

I couldn't help grinning as I started to fly, looking for anyone unfortunate enough to be out during lockdown. Usually it was any newcomers or those who "don't believe in ghosts." "I'll make sure they regret being out!" I smirked.

Ever since the fire, I had blamed the destruction of my family on the humans. They had started the mass fire, after all. True, I had been full human once, but the past was past.

"If I have to make the humans live in fear of me, so be it," I muttered darkly, all trace of emotion gone from my voice. "If I must torture, and perhaps even kill the humans in order to complete my mission…then so be it."

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A/N: Whew! Finally I got that up! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and remember to review!


	2. Rumors and Fear

A/N: I know I really _really_ need to update my other stories, but I felt like I had to post the second chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and yes, Sam narrates this chapter! This chapter takes place at about the same time as the last chapter, and it's where Sam learns about the terror of Amity Park!

Also, as another note, from now on in these chapters, I'm going to put a quote from another source that fits the chapter. I DO not own any of these quotes, unless the quote I use is cited as being from that chapter. I also do not own Danny Phantom, so there's the disclaimer for you! Oh, and if you want to draw any fanart for the fic, feel free! Just post it on deviantart and give me the web address! Enjoy!

_Through the jungle very softly flits a shadow and a sigh – _

_He is Fear, O little Hunter, he is Fear! _

- Rudyard Kipling, _"The Song of the Little Hunter" _

**Sam's POV **

"Samantha honey, we're here."

"DON'T CALL ME SAMANTHA!" I seethed angrily at my mom. "My name is Sam! I've told you that a thousand times!" I groaned. If there's one thing I hate more than my parents overly cheery attitudes, it's being called Samantha.

"Well, point is, we're finally here!" My father said brightly, getting out of the car. As my mom and I followed, he took a deep breath. "Ah, Amity Park! The city of –"

"Don't know, don't care," I muttered. "I liked Arlington Heights better." Arlington Heights was where we used to live, a city in Illinois just like Amity Park. The only problem was, it was on the other side of the state.

I looked up at our new house. It was a large white and beige house with a black roof. It even had a few turrets like our old house, but it was a little smaller.

"Don't worry," my mom smiled. "You'll learn to love Amity Park once you get used to it!" She began unloading boxes from the car with my dad's help. "Besides, you're going to the same school that your old friend Tucker is at. Casper High, remember?"

At this, I couldn't help smiling. Tucker Foley was a good friend of mine I had known since first grade. He was a little obsessed over technology and could be a goofball sometimes, but he was still a good friend. He had moved from Arlington Heights one year ago, so I was glad that I would see him again.

"Now I'll be able to ask Tucker why I haven't heard from him," I said to myself. When Tucker had moved, he promised he would call and tell me how things were at least once a week. After three weeks however, he stopped calling, and I couldn't reach him. A week before we moved, the last week of September, I tried to text him, and I was finally able to get a response. But something was strange about it. Instead of apologizing for not being able to be contacted, a few short sentences appeared:

"There is danger. Don't reply. Tell no one. He is watching."

Confused, I tried to text him again despite what he said, but the line was dead. I tried every possible way to reach him, but to no avail. Now that we were in Amity Park, I'd finally be able to get some answers…but what did he mean, _"He is watching?" _

"Uh, Mom? Dad?"

"Yes Sam?" my parents asked.

"While you unpack everything…" I began, trying to choose my words carefully, "can I go look around town for a while?"

"Okay," Mom said hesitantly, "but be back in half an hour."

Before she could say anything else, I was off.

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After about 10 minutes of wandering around, I came to a small football field around Casper High. The area was mostly empty, but there were quite a few kids my age sitting together on the field. One of them, I could see, was Tucker.

"Hey, Tucker!" I called out as I arrived at the field.

"Sam?!" Tucker gasped in surprise. But this seemed more like a fear-filled surprise, instead of excited. "W-What are you doing here?!"

"My parents made me -" I started to say, but stopped as I got a better look at my friend. His skin was paler than I remembered it being. He had quite a few scars on his face, and one very deep one on his arm that looked almost like an animal bite. "Tucker! What happened to you?"

"It's not just him Sam," another familiar voice said. "It's all of us."

I spun around, my eyes narrowing at Paulina Sanchez, another person I knew, but disliked. My eyes widened however, as I saw that she had changed dramatically from the last time I saw her, besides her calling me "Sam." Her so-called "flawless" skin was covered in deep scratches, and was strangely pale. A whole part of her right arm was completely mangled.

I looked around and noticed several other kids I knew, Dash and Kwan, along with several others, who looked as bad as Tucker and Paulina did. Some, I saw, even had their legs or arms replaced with metal limbs. I was shocked, and a little nervous too. What could of reduced all of them to such a state? "What happened?"

"Phantom."

"Huh?" I asked. Despite the fact that they had all said the same thing at the same time, I had no idea who or what Phantom was.

"Phantom did this to us," Dash sighed, "to all of us."

"It's not the worst of what he does either!" Paulina remarked almost hysterically. "He-"

"I will tell her," a voice spoke out of the fading light of the sunset. "She has the right to know."

I turned to see an older man of about seventy, who was dressed in a brown coat, with a small brown hat on top of his head.

"Oh, it's Albert Montan!" Tucker exclaimed. "He's one of the head chairmen at Axion. We usually just call him Al. He can tell you more about…him." It was clear that Tucker seemed afraid to say Phantom's name.

"Gather around everyone," Albert whispered. "We don't have much time. The sun has nearly set."

We sat down in a circle, everyone waiting for Albert to begin. I shivered slightly. Was it just the cold?

"It was exactly one year ago, October 3rd, when Phantom first arrived," Albert began. "He didn't seem that threatening when we first saw him: a boy about your age, with a black suit, bone-white hair, and bright glowing green eyes. But we could tell the moment we looked into those eyes of his that he was dangerous."

"No one knows exactly where he came from," Albert continued, "only that he appeared soon after the Amity Fire that burned down half the city. For a very short time, he only seemed to be observing us, watching us."

"If only the demon had stayed that way, too!" I heard Dash mutter.

"But then," Albert went on, "he began to attack us. At first it was just a few sightings, a few threats. Then the torments started, and if that wasn't enough, there were the killings."

I gasped, and shuddered from both cold and fear. Phantom was a _murderer?_

"Ghost shields were quickly stationed around all the buildings at nighttime, but not even they can stop Phantom's tricks. People are found dead on the streets, some of them seemingly drained of their blood. Death is his lifeblood, they say, as he often writes messages in blood."

"He's a vampire, I tell you!" screeched Paulina.

"Yes, some do say he is a vampire," Albert answered, "but there are many rumors about him. Some say that he is some sort of super-werewolf, as he has the ability to transform into a black wolf at will, his fur dark as night, and his dangerous green eyes gazing at whoever is unlucky enough to see him. Some say his birthday is on Halloween. For that seems to be when he is most active. Still others say that he can creep into the mind of another, blinding them or giving them nightmare visions. These visions can last for moments or for weeks."

"I had that happen to me," I heard Tucker say. "According to my parents it lasted two days."

Albert stopped speaking and looked at the sky. I followed his gaze, and saw there were only a few rays of sunlight left.

"Go now!" he urged us as we all got up quickly. "And you," he said as he turned to me, "must try to leave the city very soon. Before Phantom puts the Seal on you!"

As I said a quick farewell to Tucker, I ran home wondering if Phantom would do any more killings tonight. And wondering if I would ever see Tucker again.

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A/N: There you go! I hope you enjoyed it! Remember to review!


	3. Internal Conflict

A/N: Well, here I am, back again! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! By the way, just as a forewarning, the beginning of this chapter is a little…gruesome, so to speak. It's still nighttime at the beginning, but then it becomes daylight later in the chapter, where Danny meets a certain someone. Oh and at one point, Danny's thoughts (well, more than thoughts, but I won't give that away until you read the chapter) are in italics. Enjoy!

_Yes, the Evil One. I felt him probing my mind last night. _

_one of the wolves from _"The Sight" _by David Clement-Davis _

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**Danny's POV **

I flew around the darkness of the city, watching, waiting. Waiting for someone to fall into my sights, someone unlucky enough to be out after lockdown. The bright green shields were up around every house, every building. But there was always a human or two for me to attack, always.

"He's probably going to get me for what I said about him!"

I whirled around, picking up on the thoughts of a human. Outside. One for the killing. I reached out with my mind, flying all the while to see if I could spot my victim. Finally I found him: Dash Baxter, a teenager whom I had hurt before. I probed his mind again, listening to his thoughts.

"I have to get home, quick! Oh, if Phantom finds out I ever called him a demon -"

"Don't worry," I hissed menacingly at him, projecting my own thoughts into his mind. "I already have found out!"

"Phantom?!" he screamed, out loud as well as in his mind.

"Of course it is, foolish human!" I snarled, focusing my own power so that, as I watched him, he seemed suddenly to kneel over on the ground, unable to stand. Perfect.

"You should have known better than to call me a demon," I whispered, directly over him now.

The boy's face held a look of pure terror, and his skin was nearly as pale as mine. A look I had seen often that year. He didn't answer. Of course, he couldn't, with me mentally holding him there.

"I could merely blind you," I said to him, floating directly in front of him now as his eyes widened in fright, "but I need energy you know. And you know very well how I like to do that!" I gave the boy a devilish smirk, basking in my triumph, when he finally stopped being enough of a coward to speak.

"You're a murderer, Phantom!" he said, trying to sound braver than I knew he was, as his entire body was shaking with fear.

I only smirked at his words. "So I am." As I grinned down at him, my fingers began to lengthen even more, bursting through my gloves, making it appear as if my palms were streaked with blood. Just as well for me, as they would be soon enough.

"Good-bye to your life, human!"

Those were the last words that the boy ever heard, as my fingers, now like razor-sharp claws, reached out and tore the flesh across his arms. He screamed from the pain I was causing him, and my grin only grew wider.

Then, making sure he didn't get away, I slowly began to sprout fur all over my body. Jet-black fur. My arms and legs grew into the four limbs of a wolf, allowing me to walk on all fours. In a span of ten seconds, I had transformed into my wolf form. With a final snarl, I leapt up, baring my teeth and claws at my victim.

There was a scream. Then silence.

Smirking down at the body of the now-deceased boy, I raised my head and let out a howl. A loud, dangerous warning howl. It gave everyone in the city a very clear message: I have killed one of your people, and any of you could be next!

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Morning. It never could come quick enough for me. Despite the hungry, murderous feelings I had at night when I was Phantom, I felt completely terrible about it during daylight hours. I hated what I became at night: the murders, the tortures, the messages in blood. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't control it. I never even needed to sleep, since it was as if my other self was sleeping when I became Phantom.

Daylight was the only time in which I had freedom. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy. Thievery was my only method of survival.

That particular morning, however, my luck began to change. I had been trying to steal some more food from the vendor I stole from yesterday. Unfortunately, my hunger drove me to be hasty, and before I was able to flee, he caught me.

"You're going to pay for stealing now, you little thief!" he spat at me, clenching me by the arm. I shut my eyes, bracing for the worst.

"Let him go!" I suddenly heard a voice say in a firm tone.

I hesitantly opened by eyes to see a teenage girl about my age. She had straight black hair and violet eyes, wearing a black skirt and a shirt with a purple oval in the center.

The vendor looked at her with a dumbfounded expression. "Miss, this boy has stolen from me. His actions cannot go unpunished!"

"It's alright," the girl said, handing him a few dollar bills and taking an apple from him. "I'll take care of him." She glanced over at me as she said this.

The man let out an annoyed groan. "Alright, just don't let me catch him at stealing again!"

"Don't worry," the girl said as she dragged me off, "you won't!" We ran into an alley before the vendor could say anymore.

Gasping for breath, I looked into her violet eyes with gratitude. "Thank you, uh…"

"Sam," she finished for me. "My name's Sam Manson. I'm new here, I just moved in." Her expression suddenly changed to a look of concern. She reached out the hand with the apple toward me. "Here."

My expression instantly changed from gratitude to confusion. "Huh?"

"Go on, take it," she smiled, gently placing the apple in my hand. "I can see that you're starving."

With a nod in Sam's direction, I slowly took the apple from her outstretched hand, beginning to nibble on it hungrily. As Phantom, I often had plenty of food, as I feasted on the flesh and blood on the citizens. When I was normal, however, the thought of it made me feel terrible and disgusted. In my human form, I was thankful to get food when I could.

Sam gently placed a hand on my shoulder, and I flinched at her touch. Despite the fact that I was in human form, I had to struggle to keep my Phantom instincts hidden. She was a full human, after all.

"_So the human girl is new then. She must have the Seal placed on her and her family. Then, she can never escape my wrath!" _

I froze as a cold, fearful shiver went down my spine. It was the Phantom side of me talking, and I was already beginning to feel the killing urge spring up into my mind. "No!" I muttered, squeezing my eyes shut. I wouldn't let my Phantom half get the better of me in daylight.

"Are you okay, uh…" Sam began, trailing off midsentence.

"Danny," I said hurriedly as I began to back away. "My name is Danny."

"_Kill her! Let her blood be on your hands!" _

I couldn't take it anymore. I had to get out of there, and fast! With a quick "Bye!" to Sam, I took off through the streets.

I realized what the dark side of me was trying to do. For now, I only turned evil at night, with the people living in terror of my demonic actions. But that other side of me was already trying to control my mind, even during daylight. And I knew if that happened, the entire town would be at the mercy of my powers.

And the worst part of all was, the torments were actually starting to get to me.

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A/N: There's the 3rd chapter! Read and review!


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